Police hope gunman will give Moro lead today

Press, 14 April 1978, Page 6

Police hope gunman will give Moro lead today

| NZPA-Reuter Rome The Italian police hope to| I start interrogating today a; 'Red Brigades gunman] dumped outside a Turin hos-l i pital critically ill after a! (prison guard was murdered! 'in a shoot-out on Tuesday. ! The gunman. Cristofaro Pi an cone, may provide the! break in an apparent dead-j lock in the search for for-1 mer Prime Minister, Aldo] Moro, kidnanoed in a bloodvj ambush in Rome four weeks; ago. On Tuesday night the, police scored a success in, their war against ruthless! kidnappers in two raids to free hostages. First they swooped on a country hiide-out to rescue: Michela Marconi, aged 16, a; wealthy industrialist’s! daughter held for ransom of I 270 million lire (about! $NZ320.000). A few hours later the; police intercepted three men. transferring a building mag-i nate, Angelo Appolloni, from] one hide-out to another. ; The kidnappers - fought a gun battle with the police; and escaped under the cover; of darkness. Mr Arpollorii,' aged 32, was hit in the

: shoulder in the cross-fire as, i he lay handcuffed in the' i j boot of the kidnappers’ car. [ i' But there was nothing so] 11far to link these kidnap-! ■ ! pings to Mr Moro’s abduci|tors. || A caller on Wednesday! ; night told the police that the , I Red Brigades guerrilla group .'claimed responsibility for ,| the murder of a prison i guard, Lorenzo Cutugno, (aged 31, shot on Tuesday as I he was leaving the elevator jin his apartment block. ; Mr Cutugno worked in the i Turin Jail, where 15 Red ’ Brigades members are being ,j held during their trial for subversion. He managed to 'shoot at the gunmen before (dying. The caller, who the police! believe was genuine, said] I the Red Brigades would hold; (hospital and law officials re-] (sponsible for Piancone’sj safety. A group of intellectuals and Roman Catholic bishops have called on the Italian i Government to negotiate ; with the Red Brigades for I Mr Moro’s release. i But the appeal, printed in] a newspaper in Mr Moro’s; ■| home city of Bari, was not; | expected to budge the Gov-] ■ ernment from its stated re-1

solve to refuse any deal with the kidnappers. The brigades have indicated they want a prisoner (exchange for Mr Moro, and ' he himself has implored the (Government to negotiate for I his life.

The two bishops, university professors, and local ■dignitories who signed the plea in the “Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno,” said that bargaining for the release of Mr Moro, five times Prime Minister and tipped as Italy’s next President, would not be a sign of weakness.

“The dignity and prestige of the State cannot be separated in any way from the duty to protect life,” they said. ] But the Interior Minister (. (Mr Francesco Cossiga) ; emphasised in Parliament i that authorities had not lost hope. ; “Terrorism has not suc- : ceeded and will not succeed in stopping the life of the State and civil community," Mr Cossiga told the Senate (Upper House).

He defended the Government policy of imposing a news black-out on the investigations, saying it. was for security and operational reasons.